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FORTY-TWO YEARS 



EVENTFUL LIFE IN TWO WARS, 



GREAT WILD WEST AND IN WASHINGTON, D. C, 



OF A 



VETERAN OF THE MEXICAN WAR, 



NOW ALMOST BLIND. 



WITH AN APPENDIX. 



REBECCA, HIS REBECCA, THE AMERICAN NOBLE WOMAN OF OLD 
VIRGINIA, THE TRUE-HEARTED WIFE, THE DEVOTED, LOV- 
ING MOTHER OF EIGHT CHILDREN- FOUR 
SONS AND FOUR DAUGHTERS." 



B/ EVERHARD WELTER. 



/ >■/ 



Washington, D. C. ; 

1888. 






To 
Mrs. ward B. BURNETT, 

lVi(/o7C> of my late comrade 

General Ward B. Burnett, of New York, 

AND TO 

Mrs. THOMAS A. HENDRICKS, 

Widow of our late Vice-President, 

<El]i3 Dolame is {DeiJuateiJ. 



^"— 



General Land Office, 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 16, 1887. 
Mrs. Thos. a. Hendricks, 

Indianapolis, Ind. 

Madame: In grateful remembrance of the many tokens of democratic 
friendship you and your late husband, our lamented Vice-President 
Hendricks, did in 1858, 1884 and '85 bestow upon me, I beg leave to 
address you. Please, Mrs. Hendricks, do me the honor to peruse the 
inclosed copies of testimonials granted to me in October last, whilst 
on a visit to my children in Wisconsin, which my old neighbors and 
friends have been so kind as to grant to me. And if in your power, 
please, Mrs. Hendricks, address my personal friend, President Cleve- 
land, in my behalf. 

A widower myself, since 1874, I repeat my sympathy, on this 
occasion, for your irreparable loss, and remain. 

Most respectfully, your old friend and obedient servant, 

EVERHARD WELTER, 
Mexican War Veteran, from Monroe, Wis., at U. S. Soldiers' Home, 

Washington, D. C. 

The writer of the above has had the misfortune to lose the sight of 
one eye recently, and it would be a gracious act if something could be 
done for him. 

S. M. STOCKSLAGER, 
Acting Comraissioner United States Land Office. 

Since writing the foregoing a letter from Ex-Governor Dewey, of 
Wisconsin, was received by Mr. Welter, of which the following is a 
C(»py : 

Cassville, Wis., Nov. 15, 1887. 
Mr. EvERHARD Welter, 

}Vashington, D. C. 

Dear Sir : Inclosed herewith I return your petition, with my sig- 
'jature. I hope it may do you some good. I sign it because John 
Winans and others, whom I know, have signed it. 
Yours, truly, 

NELSON DEWEY. 

I cordially indorse the within statement of Mr. S. M. Stockslager, 
and trust that the wishes of Mr. Welter will be gratefully considered. 

WM. E. McLEAN, 
Acting Commissioner of Pensions. 



The undersigned, late brigadier-general and lieutenant in Colonel 
Burnett's regiment in Mexico, heartily indorses the foregoing in be- 
half of Mr. Welter. 

With great respect, 

WM. HENRY BROWNE. 

I am glad to indorse the within. 

MRS. THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

I respectfully recommend this veteran to the Presidential consid- 
eration. 

JOHN C. BLACK, 
Commissioner of Pensions. 
THOMAS A. HUDD, 
Democratic M. C. from Wisconsin. 

1846-1888. 
Forty-two years of eventful life in two wars, in the great wild 
West and in Washington, D. C, by a veteran of the Mexican War^ 
now almost blind. Attached will be found an appendix. Rebecca,, 
his Rebecca, the Amazone of old Virginia, the true hearted wife,, 
the devoted, loving mother of eight children — four sons and four 
daughters. 

CONTENTS. 

An appeal for informatiorc of a lost son. 
Where (if living) is Thomas Franklin Welter, oldest son of Ever- 
hard Welter and Rebecca Welter, his wife, and, if dead, where are 
his bones ? Frank Welter (portrayed in the above) was born on Sep- 
tember 2, 1853, in Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin ; removed in 
1856 with his parents to Glreen County, Wisconsin, first to the town 
of Jefferson and in the next year (1857) to the town of Monroe, Green 
County, Wisconsin. In that city and town he was raised, grew up 
to manhood, and is well and favorably known. In 1876 he was mar- 
ried and lived on his mother's farm. To his own, his brothers and 
sisters and his old father's great misfortune his good mother had 
died in April, 1874. In December, 1880, with his young wife, their 
two little children — a son and a daughter — and his wife's parents, he 
removed to Monroe, Jasper County, Iowa, against the wish and will 
of his sorrowing old father, whose favorite son Frank was. There^ 
from over exertion and exposure, he took sick (lung trouble), and in 
the spring of 1881 went to Denver, Colorado, in search of a milder 
clime, in Denver, Colorado, he was heard from up to July 20, 1881 ^ 
when, in a post-office money-order, remittance was forwarded to him 
from Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin, by his youngest brother, 
Robert Welter, still living there on a farm. But that post-oflSce 
money-order never reached him. In August, 1881, the money was 



returned to the sender by the Post-Office Department in Washing- 
ton D. C. ^ 

What has befallen Frank Welter ? Who knows ? Who can or 
will tell ? 

.^ SECOND. — REVIEW OF OUR CAMPAiaN IN MEXICO, IN FORTY-ONE VERSES. 

Air: " Jackson's Defense of New Orleans." 
Americans, come lend an ear to me whilst I sing, 
Then for your Army raise a shout and make the welkin ring ; 
Your noble sons have won the day on every bloody field 
And caused their haughty enemies upon their knees to yield. 
Chorus: So, cheer up my gallant lads ! 

41. Americans ! Oh, not in vain have our martyrs sighed, 
And not in vain have our heroes died ; , 
The soul of yore, the soul that gave 
The glory to America's soil and wave. 
From Vernon's mount to Ashland's grave, 
Still lightens through the sky. 

Third.— "The Soldier of the Legion/' or "Calm Bingen on the 
Rhine." 

Fourth. — Certificates of merit awarded to the Mexican veteran by 
American generals and statesmen. General Scott says: " I think 
highly of him." 

Fifth. — The birth and life of a Napoleonic soldier's boy, born upon 
the most classical and historical ground, occupied by the three re- 
nowned warriors and Ciesars, Julius of Rome, Charlemagne (Carolus 
Magnus) of Gaul, and the Napoleon (lion born) Bonaparte of Cor- 
sica. 

Sixth.— The birth, life, and death of the Soldier's Wife, one of old 
Virginia's daughters. 

The birth and life of Everhard Welter, Mexican war veteran, a 
survivor of Colonel Ward B. Burnett's New York regiment, Shield's 
brigade, Quitman's division and General Scott's army in Mexico, 
J846, '47,_and '48,_a freeholder of Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin. 

Rising in the pride of his ancestors, warriors and statesmen, both 
on his father's and his mother's side, rising in the American pride of 
his late wife, an American woman from old Virginia, and above all 
rising Cortez-like in the pride of the second conquerors of Mexico, the 
American Polks, Taylors, Scotts, Lees, Breckinridges, and their fol- 
lowers, an old Mexican veteran, before his visit to his native Rhine- 
land, publishes through the medium of his generous American friend, 
Richard H. Sylvester, Esq., editor of the Washington Critic, the fol- 
lowing brief sketch of his eventful career in America. Preparing to re- 
turn to his native land and to his only two surviving brothers and his 



only living sister, he intends to bring a raessage anda token of the faith 
kept since 1846, a true story of many, many bloody battles, 
bravely fought, of many thousands slain, the dead and dying, his 
own miraculous escape and preservation, his fierce, unyielding 
adamant temper in the struggles for the victory of his idol "American 
Democracy," and the still more mournful story of a "Gallant Sol- 
dier " slain in the house of his friends, of high hopes shattered and 
deferred, enough to make the stoutest heart sick, of proscription and 
persecution by the vilest of the vile, the unprincipled, gambling poli- 
tician . 

Often in the past his sons and daughters, his neighbors and friends 
in the Wisconsin land, have asked him to write a history of his ro- 
mantic life, many offering a liberal reward for the same. He has 
done so now and hopes that his efforts will be gratifying to many 
friends and strang^s. After the death of his former friend and com- 
panion in arms. General John Anthony Quitman, it was said by 
American journals that the perusal of the history of his life would be 
highly instructive to the sons and daughters of America. To have 
the press say the same of the writer of this pamphlet will be the old 
Mexican veteran's highest aspiration. He must trust to memory 
alone in the composition of this work. Fortunately for him his 
memory has often been admired and called brilliant, as the stars in 
the heavens. Had the Mexican veteran kept a diary he might fill 
volumes with interesting tales. It was on the thirteenth day of Octo- 
ber, 1818, that he first did see sunlight with bright, dark, and pierc- 
ing eyes, the gift of his gifted, eloquent mother. His cradle stood 
upon classical, historical ground, where once (before Christ was born) 
theEoman Leirions of Julius C«sar held their encampments for many 
years, whilst building Roman galleys at Ostend (Belgium) to carry 
them over the channel to the coveted islands of Britannia, Scotia, and 
Hibernia, where eight hundred years afterwards Charlemagne (Car- 
olus Magnus) and his Christianized Gauls, Wallons, sons of Flanders 
and Brabant fought many bloody battles against the heathen Teu- 
tons, and after overcoming all their heathen opponents became, 
through a most wonderful discovery of boiling hot and icy cold min- 
eral waters, the founders of the chapel of waters, the most ancient 
city of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aacheningerman) and the equally ancient 
l)urgh (castle) of Stolberg near that city, and where the author of 
this pamphlet was born. The ground where his cradle stood became 
more famous still in modern history as the temporary residence of 
La Fayette, the American noble woman, Josephine de Beauharnais 
and her husband, the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte, who there and 
in the Normandy, in Flanders and Brabant, along the Moselle and 
the Rhine, formed, like Charlemagne, his best battalions to be hurled 
upon Rome, Vienna, Berlin, and Moscow, and from the adjacent 
mountains of the Ardennes and Vosores came the irresistible horse- 



men of Ney ; from the Moselle and Murat, the commander of Napo- 
leon's " Iron Old Guard," whose Shihboleth was : " Lavieille Guarde 
Semeurt, nais nese rend pas," that is, in English, "The Old Guard 
can die, but surrender never." Such then were the great European 
characters upon whose portraits his eyes were cast when a babe in 
the cradle. 

Alas, how little did the gay, bright-eyed boy, when on the first of 
May, 1824 — his father's birthday — he first went to school with the 
neighbors's children, dream of the cares and sorrows of manhood and 
old age ! How little did he think that in 1888 his blooming, fresh 
face would bear expressions of sadness such as covered the portraits 
of the unfortunate Queen of France, Mary Antoinette, and the almost 
equally unfortunate Empress Josephine — the native American noble- 
woman ! Between going to school and children's playful amuse- 
ments, the boy grew up, till at the age of nine years a new epoch 
dawned upon his young life. He first saw the busy wide world, be- 
ing taking on a visit with his father to friends and relatives residing 
on the lower Rhine, Cleve, and Holland. His father's wealthy 
sisters and brotliers lived in the province of the lower Rhine (under 
Napoleon Department du Bas Rhin). There was at the City of Cleve 
residing one (his good Aunt Margaret) possessed of wealth and 
power, for her husband was under Napoleon an officer of high rank, 
Procureur-General for that Department, and continued in that high 
office under the Frederick Williams, Kings of Prussia, who after the 
abdication of the Emperor at Fontaine Bleau became the rulers of 
that " Pearl " in Napoleon's and the Hohenzollern's Crown. Aunt 
Margaret had no children with her husband, who, high in rank, lived 
baronial, ay, somewhat aristocratic, though both were so kind to the 
gay, bright-eyed boy, who, now an old and nearly blind man, writes 
this composition. In his diary of 1827, and which was after his re- 
turn home printed in pamphlet form, the boy w^riter expresses his 
delight with the ease and luxury enjoyed, the pleasures given to him 
by the sight of the commerce of the world as visible on Rhine and 
Rhur, where he also did visit " Essen," with its coal mines and after- 
wards its foundries of the formidable cannon and factories of arms of 
the famous *' Herr Krupp." But whilst the sight of mines, factories, 
ships, and commerce made a deep impression upon the boy's mind, 
always most commanding stood before him the pictures of battle 
scenes, of the forts and fortified cities with their Prussian garrisons 
he had an opportunity to inspect. And the soldiers, when they came 
marching past him with firm and gallant step by regiments, squad- 
rons, and batteries of heavy and light artillery, how ineffaceable is the 
impression they made upon his young mind. The agile huzzars, so 
gaily uniformed in azure blue and green, with their light and fiery 
Ardenne horses, the lancers (Uhlans), the heavy cuirassiers, with 
their glittering armors, helmets, and heavy swords, still appear before 
his mind to-day as clear as sixty-one years ago. 



8 

Thus like the rivulet emerging from the crystal spring, bubbling 
out of the rocks upon which the Castle of Stolberg — Carolus Magnus, 
old burgh stands — pleasantly, undisturbed, wends its way towards 
our mountain stream — passed the now ten-year-old schoolboy's life 
away, till suddenly his flowery path ended through a terrible catastro- 
phe, temporarily ending life itself. Playing with his neighbor's boys 
upon the terraces of the castle's garden walls, suddenly a portion 
thereof crumbled, sinking many feet, tearing him down with large 
flagstones and burying him completely under the ruins. The boys, 
not able to extricate him, ran for men with tools to help. Sometime 
elapsed before he was dug out of the rubbish and carried to his father's 
house stunned, mashed, bleeding from head to feet — a dead boy. 
And so he remained until the third day, when he came to life again. 
A long time it took the doctors to heal broken ribs, bones, and fract- 
ured skull. 

And although the man of seventy can remember but little of the 
" close call " he had — the loud shriek from a loving mother — over- 
powered by anguish — when the men carried him by the window of 
her room — home for dead — that mother's shriek still rings to day in 
his ears — that mother's shriek he never can forget if he should live 
one hundred years. How dear have been to his heart ever since 
the names of Mary Gertrude — his angelic mother's names. Oh, 
mother ! how dear art thou to my heart. Next to thee is only my 
dead Kebecca and our dead and living children. 

From those dark days of his boyhood on up to the still darker days 
of " old age " and adversity became established in the author's mind, 
the belief in predestination and "miraculous escape," a belief strength- 
ened by a most eventful life in wars and in peace of sixty long years. 
When during the boy's painful confinement he read attentively the 
history (and history was always his favorite study) of the chief of his 
mother's house — Frederick the Great — and the chief of his father's 
house — the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte — that belief was still more 
strengthened in him, especially by the passage in Napoleon's life on 
the evening when, in Paris, " La machine infernale " was fired with 
such fatal efiect, killing and maiming so many of his aids and guards, 
but he and Josephine miraculously escaped unhurt. The poor Cor- 
sican soldier had succeeded to fairly earn his Josephine, her riches 
and the love of her children, Hortense and Eugene de Beauharnais. 
He had defeated Austria and Italy. He had conquered Rome. He 
had been elected by the voice of the French army and people their 
First Consul or President for ten years. For a man so young he had 
reached a zenith of glory. On that dark and ominous evening 
Josephine had desired him to accompany her to the theater. First 
opposing, he at last consented to gratify her wish. Whilst prepara- 
tions were making he rested dreamingly upon the sofa. Woman-like, 
Josephine did ask him why he felt so somber. Nopoleon replied that 



involuntary before liis mind appeared the many miraculous escapes 
from instant death he had experienced in his young life. He cited 
the Bridge of Lodie and the crossing of the river " Tagliamento," 
where the strong current swept him down, and but for his snatching 
a twig of a willow hanging over the bank he would surely have 
been a drowned man. Little did he dream that only one hour later 
lie and Josephine should experience still more wonderful and miracu- 
' lous escape from instant death. How many such wonders happened 
to him who writes these lines, of which he could write romances, if 
time and space did permit. 

The events of time were favorable to the military spirit of the sol- 
dier's boy, for a couple of years after his return home to school there 
occurred in 1830 events which shook Europe from Spain to Russia, 
from Italy to Britain. Again, as in the days of the Republic, 1790- 
1800, under the Jacobines, the Montague et Gironde, the Directory 
•and the First Consul Bonaparte, the enchanting National " Marseil- 
laise " resounded in Paris, and popular enthusiasm, sweeping like the 
prairie fires of the great American West, the " Brabanson" was heard 
in the streets of Brussels and throughout Belgium to the Prussian 
frontier. Charles X., the last of the ancient Bourbons, had been de- 
throned by bloody revolution, and of the Orleans family " Louis 
Phillip," named le roi des Citoyen, the Citizens' King, chosen as the 
head of the French nation. Everywhere to the left bank of the river 
Bhine the spirit of revolution was marching on. The French speak- 
ing people of Belgium, the Wallons and sons of Brabant (mes brave 
Beiges, as the Corsican Napoleon addressed them), burning with in- 
dignation at the many abuses heaped upon them by their rulers, the 
House of Orange, the Hollanders, or the ''Dutch," as called with 
many others by the English-speaking people of the North American 
States, in imitation of the French, rose en masse. The House of 
Orange lost. 

A new dynasty in Europe rose. Leopold of Saxony became King 
of Belgium. To the eastward of the boy's home and school, though 
hemmed in by strong Prussia and powerful Russia, the sons and 
daughters of unfortunate Poland, the countrymen of Kosciusko and 
Pulawski tried the impossible (one against a hundred), and for the 
last time on earth was heard the song: " Poland is not yet lost." 

But the people had it not their own way everywhere. The army, 
the flower of Prussia's well-armed and most exemplary disciplined 
and commanded army, soon was stretched by the tens of thousands 
from the fortresses on the Rhine to the frontiers of France, Belgium, 
and Holland, not for parades, drill, and glittering show, but ready 
for battle at a minute's warning, with bayonets and sabers well sharp- 
ened, with caissons and cartridge-boxes well filled with powder, shot, 
and shell. The boy of twelve, now an old man of nearly three score 
^nd ten, with other gay boys and girls, was capering and playing 



10 

around the old school-house of Stolberg, near Aix-la-Chapelle, when 
suddenly at noon in July, 1830, upon the Belgian pavement the clat- 
ter of horses' hoofs and the clank of sabers in the scabbard fell upon 
his ear. He looked up and surely there came the same hussars (light 
cavalry), with their fiery Ardenne horses and their bright uniforms^ 
he had beheld in 1827 at the fortresses and garrisons of Jollret, 
Cologne, Dentz, and Bonn on the Rhine. The same lively horses, but 
not the same men, for those of 1827 looked playful on parade; 
those of 1830 looked grim in death earnest. Silence reigned supreme. 
Not a word was spoken. Only at intervals the bugle sounded and 
men and horses obeyed with great precision the command given. 
Lancers with drapeaus of death's colors, "^ black and white," the 
national colorsof Prussia, fluttering in the breeze, bene9,th their glit- 
tering spears followed the light huzzars. Next came the heavy cuir- 
assiers, their bright armors, helmets, and heavy swords shining in 
the sun like mirrors. Frowning dark, spitting '' death and desolation 
gaunt" from the muzzles of their guns and howitzers, the grim ar- 
tillery men, mounted and on foot, rattled next over the pavement, 
closely folio wed by the rifles of Wetzlar and the Ardenne mountaineers, 
clad in the hunter's colors, "• light green," the color of Erin and 
Henry of Navarra, and then the masses of infantry, with bayonets 
fixed, colors flying, and the regimental bands playing the national 
airs of war prepared Prussia. Many, many thousand men of arms 
passed where the writer's "school-house" stood on that day. The 
sight of that most perfect army was simply enchanting to the soldier'* 
boy and most all the other school-boys. Even the school-girls' eyes 
brightened at beholding these thousands of young soldiers, led ort 
mostly by gray-haired colonels, brigadiers, and commanders of the^ 
Napoleonic wars. Over one thousand men of all arms remained in 
the castle, city and town, and transformed as if by magic Stolberg, 
the quiet, peaceable mining and manufacturing town in the morning 
into a fort and garrison in the evening, where the bugle sounded^ the- 
fife was heard, the drums beat and the bands played at roll calls, 
parades, tatoos, and reveilles. But no battles for the Prussians came.. 
France and Belgium were successful in their revolutions and the in- 
cessant reports of the French mortars and guns, under command of 
General Chase, beating day after day, night after night, against the-^ 
strong Citadel of Antwerp, in order to compel the "Hollanders" 
(Dutch) to evacuate the Belgian territory, was the last of the pan- 
orama of war seen and heard in 1831 by the writer in his native 
Rhineland. Peace, sweet peace, returned. The Protectionist and 
high tax and tarifl" King, Charles X, dethroned. Louis Phillip,, 
le roi des Citoyens, reigning, developing internal, expanding in north- 
ern Africa external resources, French, Belgian and English capital 
sought investments in rich Rhineland. In the writer's native town 
new coal, lead, and zinc mines, new glass mirror and cotton factories 



11 

■sprung up like mushrooms. But the warlike spirit had not entirely 
died in France. Algiers must be won. La legion de trauger was 
formed. Young warriors from the Mediterranean to the British 
Channel, froii the Pyrennees to the Rhine, were called upon to join 
the legion. The thirteen-year-old boy felt in 1831, '' going to Africa " 
to fight the battles of France, as he felt fourteen years later 
''going to Mexico" fighting the battles for America. And as in 
1827 he may have seen in Bingen on the Rhine " The soldier of the 
Legion" who in 1831 lay dying at Algiers, " where there was want 
of woman's nursing and dearth of women's tears. He reproduces in 
this pamphlet the beautiful poem of the gifted American woman, Mrs. 
Norton, entitled " Bingen, calm Bingen, on the Rhine, which town, 
and Bappard close by, and where his wealthy, childless brother 
Charles dwells, he hopes to see before Fourth of July next. Time 
rolled by. The boy of thirteen in 1831 appeared the young man of 
eighteen in 1836, the famous year for bountiful wine crops on the 
Rhine and Moselle. 

Emancipated by his parent's will, financially favored by inheritance 
from Aunt Margaret, the young man of eighteen commenced doing 
business for himself, making the cities of Aix-la Chapelleand Anvers 
(Antwerp) his favorite residences. From thence he made frequent 
excursions up and down his favorite river " The Rhine, the beautiful 
Rhine," vi^siting most all the South German States, Switzerland, 
Southern France and Italy, where in Milan his oldest sister, Mary 
Antoinette, and her wealthy husband had taken up their residence. 
Successfully were crossed the Alps, the Lakes, the Rhone, the Blue 
Danube. In Switzerland Geneva and Lausanne, in Germanland 
Munich and Mayence had the most attractions for him. The verses of 
Geneva, Guand vous etes a Geneve, pour S'amus er quoi fair ? Prendre 
une voiture et aller voir Voltaire. Mais Voltaire, il est mort ! Oh, 
non Voltaire n'est pas mort. Voltaire se vit et vit toujours. Dapres 
la nuitse suit lejour are fresh to his memory to-day. Oh, youthful 
days. How many sunny rays are thine. Thus were spent the early 
manhood days of the author, sometimes profitably and most all the 
time pleasurahly. Singular, despite the many rumors of his engage- 
ments, in spite of the innumerable attractions of the maidens of 
Flanders and Brabant, the merry and charming beauties on the 
Rhine, the rosy cheeked damsels of Switzerland and the dark eyes of 
France and Italy, the young man remained single. Providence, in- 
scrutable Providence, had reserved him for his American Rebecca, as 
the Corsican Bonaparte had been preserved for his American Joseph- 
ine. 

In 1840 he was designated for military service in the rifle battalion 
stationed at Wetzlar, but a lucky drawing saved him time and ex- 
penses, for he was a soldier born and required no instruction in the 
daily routine of garrison service. How singular does Providence rule. 



12 

His third brother Godfrey entering that battalion at his own ex- 
pense in 1847, was struck in the forehead by a rebel bullet in August, 
1848, near Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and instantly killed. Poor 
brother Godfrey ! He falls in the same month of August, 1848, when 
his oldest brother returned triumphantly to Fort Hamilton, New 
York, and the fifth of that month participates in the grandest recep- 
tion, given to the few survivors of his gallant regiment commanded 
by Col. Ward B. Burnett, of all the grand receptions given by the 
American cities to the returning conquerors of Mexico. Whilst the 
maidens of America did strew flowers in one victorious soldier's path, 
the other soldier — his brother — fell in battle lifeless, and to rise 
no more. But such is life and soldiers' fate ! 1844 had 
dawned uppn the world, and with that year came the great turning 
point in the, writer's life. Returning from one of his excursions on 
the Rhine, on a visit to his father's house, he found there a traveler 
from a far distant land, a traveler from America, irom Mexico, with 
gold and silver frona that far-famed land of golden treasure. The 
traveler in 1822 had departed from his and the writer's native Rhine- 
land, lived as a man of business in New York City, Philadelphia, 
New Orleans, and from thence first to Tampico, Mexico, and finally 
in 1830 to Vera Cruz, where Cortez and Scott landed. Though with- 
out military renown and glory (alas, often vain glory) he had acquired 
that which rules America and Europe — the Almighty Gold ! 

Interrupting the thread of my history, I shall here insert a pleas- 
antry of the writer with Mr. W. W Corcoran, of this city, which oc- 
curred in 1858. The writer in that year most every day had the 
pleasure to converse with General Scott, President Buchanan, and 
Vice-President Breckinridge, his favorite friends. Possessing some 
gold on deposit in Mr. Corcoran's bank, he went there occasionally 
for current expenses. On one occasion Mr. Corcoran remarked pleas- 
antly, " Well, it seems you Mexican soldiers cannot live on glor^ 
alone but must come to me when you want money." '' It appears so, 
Mr. Corcoran, "I replied, adding, "and why not come to you,our banker 
during the war. Though we returned rich in conquest, yet in pocket 
poor. All we made we gave to you and to the American people, re- 
taining only that soldier's vanity— glory." "That is so,'' replied 
Mr. Corcoran, adding, " How much do you want to-day ?" When 
the writer, after an absence of a quarter of a century, returned to 
Washington in 1883, he had the pleasure to meet the venerable phi- 
lanthropist and a few other old friends, among them Mr. Tenny, of 
the National Hotel. Referring to events of 1858, we had a hearty 
laugh over "that affair," though Mr. Corcoran had now almost 
reached the age of ninety years, and the writer was approaching the 
age of three score and ten. 

Emil Van S. — a distant relative of father's house and a preacher's 
son — like ray friends, the lamented President Arthur and the living 



13 

President Cleveland — had been favored indeed by fortune — finan- 
cially had made good use of his natural talent and fair education. 
He deserved to be called a gentleman and a scholar in the true sense 
of the words. But as the sun not always shines, so fortune does not 
always favor us mortals. In the midst of a successful mercantile ca^ 
reer, not yet over forty-five years old, he met like the author of this 
true history with the terrible misfortune to lose his eyesight almost 
entirely. So blind was he that with difficulty only he could grope 
his way in and around the house, and dared not venture alone into 
the surging thoroughfares of the town withoutguide. Hence he was 
rejoiced to find a guide on occasions in the author, who in return was 
equally glad to add such a most valuable acquisition to the number 
of his friends. Indeed, I will now mention that without the consul, 
as we addressed him, for in Vera Cruz he had been associated in mer- 
cantile pursuit with the consul of the German cities of Hamburg, 
Bremen, and Lubeck, I could not have acquired the practical knowl- 
edge of the United States and Mexico I possessed when landing in 
the New World in 1846. 

My new friend had seen and studied all that was worth seeing and 
studying in America and Mexico, and possessed a talent for reciting 
and imparting interesting knowledge to me — a faculty equaled only 
by my former school teacher, Mr. K. From 1831 to 1842 my Ameri- 
can friend had visited the City of Mexico almost annually once, com- 
ing in contact with high and low, rich and poor, of Santa Anna's 
land. Three times he fell into the hands of the Mexican banditti — 
the guerillas, as we soldiers called them — and three times for a ran- 
som he and his companions de voyage were released, without suffer- 
ing bodily harm. And whilst residing at Vera Cruz that terrible 
scourge of the Gulf — yellow fever — had attacked him. Two times he 
recovered. The third time he lost partially his former health 
and strength — he was a strong, well built man, six feet tall and re- 
sembled President Arthur in form and deportment — and alas, almost 
entirely his eyesight. Thus he returned to his native Khineland to 
seek restoration of health and sight in its climate and its doctors of 
world-renowned science. How little did the venturesome young man 
of twenty-six years dream in 1844 that a similar fate could befall him 
in 1888. 

Bnt even the blind — by power of strong mind — can banish de- 
spondency and despair from their spirits. Thus my new friend in my 
company could find recreation in excursions to the Rhine and Bel- 
gium. Neau or Eupen, his native city, in his comparisons of life in 
Europe and America and Mexico, in the great delight he took in im- 
parting to me most valuable knowledge of the latter country, its 
geography, its customs and language, for the consul was an accom- 
plished linguist. He could with fluency and accurate grammar speak, 
read, and write, not only the languages of his native land, the Ger- 



14 

man and the French, but also English, Spanish, and well retained 
his Latin and Greek. He had with him most valuable maps of 
Mexico, the country from Vera Cruz to the City of the Montczumas, 
the mining districts San Louis Potosi and the whole Republic of 
Mexico, as it existed before the war. Some of those maps he presented 
to me. They were lost with my trunk, containing valuable books and 
clothing, valued at two hundred dollars, at Vera Cruz, for which up 
to date the owner has not been repaid, the Government pleading that 
he was not a commissioned officer at the time the loss occurred. So 
let this loss slide with many others of hundreds of dollars and let my 
consolation be that glory and my Rebecca I won in and through the 
Mexican war. The writer returns to his native land not with a fort- 
une in money made, on the contrary, with a fortune in money lost, 
yet proud at his achievements, for with La Fayette and Kosciusko he 
can exclaim : Though I have lost all, my aged head, my gray hairs, 
find above all my honor as a soldier and a man I have saved. In 
the year 1844 occurred the memorable election of James K. Polk as 
President of the United States of America. The London Times ap- 
peared to be greatly agitated about the consequences of that election, 
the inevitable annexation of Texas and war with Mexico. French, 
Jielgian, and German newspapers, which I did read daily to the ex- 
consul from Mexico, contained copious extracts from the Times. 
Though somewhat aristocratic and " imperial " in Europe, he had 
f'spoused in America the cause of " American Democracy.'' Indeed, 
lie was a thoroughbred Democrat. He always spoke highly of Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, and Jackson, especially of the latter. The Ameri- 
can army and navy officers with whom he had come in contact he 
described to me as gentlemen, far more so than the rude, overbear- 
ing British and doubtful Mexican commanders. In his feelings for 
America he took sides with James K. Polk and the whole South, 
w\i\i which section he appeared to sympathize more than with the 
North or Yankees, as he called them. His opinion of mongrels and 
negroes as co-equals of the whites I afterwards discovered was com- 
pletely Southern. 

Such were then the first practical lessons of life in the United 
States and Mexico the author received. All subsequent events of a 
period of forty-four years have rather confirmed than weakened the 
impressions which the "word paintings" of the ex-consul from 
Mexico made upon his young mind. Like the writer, Emil Van S, 
was firm as adamant. There is no doubt in my mind he lived and 
died in the '' Jacksonian faith." In church matters he was very, 
very tolerant, admitting, at all times, the great power of the origi- 
nal — that is, the Catholic Church of Rome — over the masses born and 
raised in the collection of Christians on earth. Yet he was like the 
writer and his preceptors, Frederic and Napoleon the Great, a fatal- 
ist at heart, belisving in predestination. It is to be wondered that 



15 

with his courage to hrave dangers he never for a moment faltered in 
eiicouraging the writer to imitate his example and try his fortune in 
America and Mexico. Long before his departure from his father's 
house (still owned by the Welters — still the author's pride) his 
blind friend had prepared for him valuable presents and letters of 
introduction to highly respectable mercantile parties in New Orleans, 
Tampico, and Vera Cruz — parties who, in the latter city, after its 
surrender, received him and his commander, Colonel Ward B. Bur- 
nett, so liberally, ay, splendidly, in their palace of a residence 
where he experienced a foretaste of the splendor in the palace of the 
Montezuraas. 

But, although financially independent of parental wish and will, 
the writer, at the age of twenty-seven years, was still the obedient 
child, the good boy, "the dutiful son he always had been. Therefore 
he could, he would not leave Europe without parental and his Gov- 
ernment's consent. The latter was obtained without difficulty. But 
not his stern father's and warm-hearted good mother's '' ay " could 
so easily be gotten. What, for to leave a house, a country where 
the young man had the enjoyment of wealth and ease and large in- 
heritance from wealthy uncles and aunts before him and risk his life 
and property upon the treacherous waves of the ocean, in a strange 
land, a stranger among strangers? This and many other questions 
were daily discussed. To his good luck my blind friend stood un- 
falteringly, encouragingly by me. Father's pride as a captain in 
Napoleon's jeune Garde d'honneur, and his aid and secretary at 
Leipsic, and from thence on to the Emperor's abdication at Fontaine- 
bleau, was appealed to. He yielded first. Mother, good mother, 
how terrible was the struggle before, with tears and a broken heart, 
thou also couldst give thy consent! 

Oh, woman's heart! How warm is thy love for thy loved ones! 
Oh, Mary Gertrude, my dear mother, how hard for thee to part from 
thy first born when the hour comes to say : Adieu, au revoir! Ob, 
Rebecca, my dear wife, how fierce thy struggle when, in the hour o ' 
death, thou gavest thy parting kisses, thy last blessings to tliy 
children, and the children's father, thy mourning husband! But 
the hour of parting from all dear to his heart on earth had struck 
whilst weeping brothers and sisters laid the fainting mother softly 
upon the sofa. The Jackson adamant, who had come from Mexico — 
the stern soldier of Napoleon's Guard — led the way and accompanied 
the Mexican, as his younger brothers playfully called him, to our 
next seaport, his ancient favorite city of Antwerp, where every- 
thing was done for him to make a two weeks' stay and the passage 
across the Atlantic profitable and pleasant. Antwerp with all its 
attractions ! It was almost as hard for me to part from that city as 
it was to say adieu to my native town, Stolberg and Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle. Shall the wanderer — the first and only pilgrim of his tribe— 



16 

shall the Mexican soldier see all these ancient burghs of Charlemagne 
again? But hark! a Norsekeman captain sixty-seven years old — a, 
seafaring man all his lifetime — takes command of his staunch bark 
''Oloff" lying in the stream. It was three o'clock on a mild, clear 
Sunday afternoon, in the early fall of 1846, when the last cabin pas- 
senger, a young man, determined and soldier-like looking, ascends 
the deck of the "Oloff" and, with his coffers and valises, is assigned 
his room in the cabin on the deck. The bark was built somewhat in 
old Norsekeman style, somewhat clumsy looking, but, as her trials in 
dreadful storms and hurricanes showed, "strong as the tower, the 
castle of Charlemagne, at Stolberg." " I am glad you have come," 
said the old captain to the young man, "for our pilot is with us and 
we shall sail soon." So said, so done. At four o'clock resounds on 
deck the order, "Hoist anchor!" The Norsekeman sailors, with 
alacrity, obey the order, and, accompanied by their merry Norway 
songs, the clumsy anchors soon ascend. The ship floated. The 
pilot orders sails to be set, and leisurely the bark swam down the 
stream, the Shelde, as if to give the Europeans on board a chance to 
bid farewell to native land. 

For the first time in his life the young emigrant rested on board an 
ocean vessel, and, fatigued as he was, slept as sound as in his father's 
house. That was on Sunday night. How different the Monday 
night in the British Channel, where the waves of the Atlantic and 
the Baltic dashingly — as if in rough embrace — meet each other. 
Not that the usual terror of the emigrant, "seasickness," had the 
least effect upon him. No ; not on that occasion or the many subse- 
quent trips to sea he made did that malady befall him. Indeed, the 
captain and the sailors looked with wonder at liim, for of the three 
hundred steerage and cabin passengers he was almost the only one 
not seasick. Something more serious than passing malady occurred. 
The pilot had left us in the forenoon of Monday, and on the evening 
of that day the staunch bark " Oloffu" had already her first trial of 
her nerve and muscle in the storm that sprung up in the Channel, 
increased in violence towards midnight, and by Tuesday forenoon had 
turned into a hurricane. But few, not even the old salts, the sailors, 
could enjoy sound sleep that night and for the next three days an(l 
nights. But why tell of storms at sea and on land. That is so com- 
mon. Suffice it to say that the bark Olotf had a long and fearful 
struggle before she reached the harbor of New York. Within a hair's 
breadth, whilst tossed to and fro in the Channel, she came near being 
hurled upon the steep, perpendicular walls of Albion. She had 
niutiny among the steerage passengers, and the cry of the "Ship on 
fire." For three days and nights she was tossed mountain high 
upon the banks of Newfoundland. That was the last trial the 
Norsekeman 's bark had to undergo. Thanks to her strong timbers, 
her massive build, the skill of her experienced old captain, his young 



17 

mates and sailors, she survived all the tempests that had befallen 
her. Soon after the change in the color of the ocean's waters indi- 
cated even to the landsfolks on board that the cry heard on board 
the Pinta, of Columbus' fleet, "Terra" (land) would soon be heard on 
board the OlofiF. The sight of sailing ships (for at that time but few 
steamships could be seen at sea) became more frequent and among 
them was a small craft flying the "• American flag," approaching the 
OlofF with the swiftness of a gazelle. It was the pilot's boat. As 
if by magic the scene changes. An American pilot fresh and briskly 
steps on board, takes command, and safely brings the ship to her pier 
in North River, New York. The traveler beholds the largest Ameri- 
can city, a city of which he has read and heard so much interesting 
to him, spread out before him. He is anxious to leap upon the free 
soil of America and pursue his course. But again comes the parting 
from new made friends. Associated with the old captain and his first 
mate daily at table and evenings, often complimented by both for 
coolness and self-possession on many occasions of danger, the old sea- 
faring gentleman, who with his bark had been often in New York, 
and intended to make this his last trip to sea and to that city, had 
become endeared to him. But part we must. The custom house 
operations over, the captain took up his quarters at the Astor House, 
whilst the writer at the Howard Hotel, corner Maiden Lane and 
Broadway (near by. No. 5 Dey street, the office of the glass importer, 
K. from his native town), found truly American comfort. The young 
immigrant soon made new friends among the natives of his native 
Rhineland, mostly gentlemen from Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, who 
favored him so much by showing him round that soon he could find 
his way in the large commercial metropolis of America. They also ex- 
hibited to him the New York Herald containing a description of the 
bark OlofF's long and at times desperately dangerous voyage from 
Antwerp to New York. The description was written by the old cap- 
tain, who did not forget to mention favorably his cabin passenger and 
young friend, the writer. With finances in good condition, time in 
Gotham, of which, through Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irv- 
ing, he had learned much from reading their works, passed profitably 
and pleasurely till came dead earnest work, after having met an army 
officer of rank. That officer answered so perfectly the description of 
the good qualities of American army and navy officers of that period, 
as portrayed to him by his tutor, the consul from Vera Cruz, that the 
young explorer of the Western Hemisphere at once felt attracted to 
him and determined to follow him to Mexico. The officer commanded 
a, regiment soon to leave for the seat of war. His fine native Ameri- 
can appearance, his perfect military carriage, his accomplished edu- 
cation — he spoke French fluently — and above all his remarkable 
gentility, won for the officer many hearts, among them the writer's, to 
such an extent that from 1846 to 1884 — the year of the officer's death, 



we lived together warm hearted and true frien\ss-^/as ^inany, mavty 
letters and recommendations accorded by that gallant model Ameri-i- 
can army otficer still in the author's possession will show. The 
officer's life, his deeds of valor as a soldier, and great services to his 
native land, as a Democratic American statesman, demonstrated that 
he was worthy of the confidence President Jackson placed in him,^ 
when during his first term he appointed him a cadet to West Point, 
commissioned him lieutenant during his second term, and before his 
-death bequeathed to him his gold snuiF-box. President Polk com- 
missioned him colonel of the Second New York Regiment in Mexico, 
^^resident Buchanan appointed him Surveyor-General of Kansas and 
Nebraska, at the same time when my still living true Democratic 
friend. General James W. Denver (formerly Captain Co. H, 12th U.. 
S. Infantry, in Mexico), was appointed Governor of those bleeding 
Territories. And still later, during the last civil war, my colonel 
was commissioned a Brigadier-General on the Union side. To my 
American lady friend, his widow, Mrs. Ward B. Burnett, of New 
York) and also to Mrs. Thos. A. Hendricks, of Indiana, widow of my 
beloved Democratic friend, our lamented Vice-President Hendricks, 
this pamphlet is especially dedicated. 

When on the Rhine, I shall find stenographer and type-setter^ 
I shall complete my works, entitled : 

Ist. '* Hernandez Cortez II ; or, The Second Conquest of Mexico," 
by James K. Polk, Democratic President of the United States, his 
generals, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, their colonels, captains, 
their soldiers, the Burnetts, the Shieldses, the Quitmans, the Vir- 
ginia Lees, and Kentucky Breckenridges, from President Polk, 
Pierce, and Buchanan to Cleveland and Hendricks. 

2d. "^The war for supremacy of mind and money between the 
North American States in 1861 -'65, and its consequences in America 
and Europe." 

Five American Presidents, and the same number of Vice-Presi- 
dents, I had the honor to become acquainted and converse with, and 
to remember them with gratitude in my heart shall be the last great 
effort of my long life. 

To enlarge this, my farewell address, temporarily only, I hope, to 
my American sons and daughters, my grandsons and granddaughters, 
my neighbors, and my friends would be anticipating the contents of 
my next work : " The second conquest of Mexico." 

Hence, I shall confine myself in this pamphlet with the publica- 
tion of testimonials granted to me by my former American com- 
manders, officers, soldiers, all comrades in arms ; hoping that it 
will be pleasing and encouraging ; also to the young men and 
women of America, to learn how one who from early boyhood was 
a sympathizer with their cause and country— a lone stranger from, 
the far-off Rhine, earned through indomitable energy, truthfulness,, 



19 

and integrity iiiiULrous certficates of merit and recommendation' 
from " American Patriots." Alas, alas, now most all number among 
the noble dead ! 

I close by repeating my farewell address, delivered in October 
last, in my home, from 1856 to 1883, Monroe, Green County, Wis- 
consin ; and parting to my numerous American friends in Washing- 
ton, D. C, and Alexandria, Virginia, say : " God bless you ; fare- 
well." 

Dated, Soldiers' Home, Washington, D. C, February, 1888. 

WELTER. 

My American Friends : As a survivor of the legions of Taylor 
and of Scott, I return my heartfelt thanks for the many tokens of 
kindness, hospitality and generosity extended to me by the natives 
of America, both men and women. There is nothing so dear to my 
heart as the happiness of my American friends ; ay, the American 
people. That this generous American people may be blessed *'in 
basket and in store" is my sincere and my earnest prayer. The 
soldier and the sailor at times bids farewell to comrades good and 
true, he never expects to meet again ; I now in this my last effort 
in America bid you all farewell. Whether we meet again on earth 
or in the promised beyond, I say to all, God bless you. 

Farewell ! 

E. WELTER. 

BiNGEN ON THE RhINE. 

A soldier of the Legion lay dying at Algiers, 

There was lack of woman's nursing. 
There was dearth of woman's tears ; 
But a comrade stood beside him, • • 

While his life-blood ebbed away, 
And bent with pitying glances 

To hear what he would say. 
The dying soldier faltered. 

As he shook that comrade's hand. 
And he said, I never more shall see 

My own, my native land ! ; 

Take a message and a token. 

To some distant friend of mine; 
For I was born at Bingen, 

At Bingen on the Rhine. 
Tell my brothers and companions « 

When they meet and crowd around 
To hear my monrnful story 

In the pleasant vineyard ground. 
That we fought the battle bravely^ .''■'■ 

And when the day was gone, 



20 

Full many a corpse lay ghastly pale 

Beneath the setting sun. 
-And midst the dead and dying, 

Were some grown old in wars, 
The death wound on their manly breast, 

The last of many scars , 
-But some were young, and suddenly 

Beheld life's morn decline, 
And one had come from Bingen, 

Fair Bingen on the Rhine. 
Tell mother that her other sons 

Shall comfort her old age. 
And I was once a truant bird 

That thought his home a cage. 
For my father was a soldier, 

And ever as a child 
My heart leaped forth to hear him tell 

Of struggles fierce and wild. 
And when he died and left us, 

To divide his scanty hoard, 
I let them take whatever they would, 

But kept my father's sword — 
And with boyish love I hung it 

Where the bright sun used to shine. 
On the cottage wall at Bingen, 

Calm Bingen on the Rhine. 
Tell my sister not to weep for me. 

And sob with drooping head. 
When the troops are marching home again 

With glad and gallant tread, 
But to look upon them proudly. 

With a calm and steadfast eye, 
For her brother was a soldier, too. 

And not afraid to die. 
And if a comrade asks her hand, 

I ask her in my name 
To listen to him kindly. 

Without regret or shame ; 
And to hang the old sword in its place, 

My father's sword and mine. 
For the honor of old Bingen, 

Dear Bingen on the Rhine. 
There is another — not a sister. 

In the happy days gone by, 
You would know her by the merriment 

That sparkled in her eyes. 



21 

Too innocent for coquetry, 

Too fond for idle scorning, 
Oh, friend, I fear the lightest heart 

Makes sometimes heaviest mourning. 
Tell her the last night of my life, 

For ere the moon be risen, 
My body will be out of pain, 

My soul be out of prison. 
I dreamed I stood with her, 

And saw the yellow sunlight shine, 
On the vineclad hills of Bingren — 

Fair Bingen on the Rhine ! 
I saw the blue Rhine sweep along, 

I heard, or seemed to hear, 
The German songs we used to sing, 

In chorus sweet and clear. 
And down the pleasant river 

And up the slanting hill 
The echoing chorus sounded 

Through the evening calm and still. 
And her glad blue eyes were on me, 

As we passed with friendly talk, 
Down many a path beloved of yore 

And well-remembered walk. 
And her little hand lay lightly, 

Confidingly in mine, 
But we'll meet no more at Bingen, 

Loved Bingen on the Rhine. 
His voice grew faint and hoarser. 

His grasp was childish weak. 
His eyes put on a dying look, 

He sighed and ceased to speak. 
His companion bent to lift him. 

But the spark of life had fled. 
The soldier of the Legion 

In foreign land was dead ; 
And the soft moon rose up slowly. 

And calmly she looked down, 
On the red sand of the battle field, 

With bloody corpses strewn, 
Yes, calmly on that dreadful scene, 

Her pale light seemed to shine. 
As it shown on distant Bingen, 

Fair Bingen on the Rhine. 

By Miss Norton, whilst she was dwelling on the Rhine. 



22 

Review of Our Campaign in Mexico, 1846-'48. 
Air: Jackson's Defense of New Orleans. 

- ; BY A SOLDIER. 

I. 

Americans ! come lend an ear unto me while I sing, 
Then for your army raise a shout, and make the welkin ring ; 
Tour noble sons have won the day on every bloody field, 
And caused their haughty enemies upon their knees to yield. 

Chorus : So, cheer up, my gallant lads. 

II. 

When war's loud trumpet called them forth on Palo Alto's plain^ 
Some thousands of the enemy were found among the slain ; 
And then, again, on Palmas field the victory we won, 
Led by the gallant Taylor^ Columbia's idol son. 

Chorus, etc. 

III. 
With Mexicans we were at war, who then besieged Fort Brown, 
And day and night, with heavy guns, thought sure to bring jt down. 
Our Salamanders stood the shocks, and gave each back again, 
So that Hombre Mexicans all soon found it was in vain. 

IV. 
Old Rough now being ready, too, on Matamoras went, 
And into its fine palaces his thundering missiles sent. 
They gave him up that famous place, and all that was within, 
Content, indeed, if they could save but their poor yellow skin. 

V. 

The Rio Grande was^then, our own, our enemies gave back ; 
But Taylor, at his country's bid, still followed on their track ; 
He followed like the mountain storm, and Monterey was ours. 
With all her iron dungeons, her palaces and towers. 

VI. 
On Buena Vista's bloody field again we met the foe, 
Led on by Santa Anna, the cause of all their woe. 
With ball and bayonet, sword and lance, again we won the day. 
And their boasting yellow legions were forced to run away. 

VII. 

Our haughty foe determined still for peace to never treat, 
Landy's brave hero, then, was sent their legions dark to meet ; 
And with a band of freemen bold he left his native land, 
And, with them shouting, leaped upon the Aztec's burning sand. 



23 

VIII. 
We laid a siege to Vera Cruz, and stormed Ullva's towers, 
The iron strength of Mexico, the pride of all her powers. 
Our growling bombs burst in their midst, and with the lightning 

glare 
Lit up to view the ravages that they committed there. 

IX. 

From off the sand hills all around the furious storm came down, v; 
And death and desolation gaunt were seen throughout the town. :, /. 
Our gallant tars upon the beach fought just as freemen fight. 
And by their constant firing lit up the gloom of night. 

X. 

Day after day, night following night, our guns with fury glowed, 
And through that fated city's walls their fiery courses mowed. 
The castle, great Ullva's pride, the city too subdued. 
At length surrendered to our arms, as if by magic wooed. 

XI. 
Then for their shining capital our army made its way, 
Determined if they would have war the music they should pay ; 
While Santa Anna, full of hopes, with victory in sight. 
Entrenched himself in majesty on " Cerro Gordo's " height I 

XII. 

Our troops went on, as firm as rocks of Alpine storied fame ; 
With eyes as keen as eagles, intent upon their game ; 
And, at the bayonet's point again, our army gained the day, 
While Santa Anna, on a mule, made out to get away. 

XIII. 

His yellow greasers left the hills, as pigeons leave the trees, 

And all that couldn't get away again got on their knees ; 

Our glorious flag waved over their works — the victory was complete. 

And Santa Anna got no time to eat that savory meal. 

XIV. 
Next at the rocky Pedregal Valencia lay entrenched. 
Hard by Contreras, which, he said, from him could not be wrenched ; 
But seventy minutes by the watch served us to win the day. 
One-half we killed and took alive, the rest they ran away. 

XV. 

Our foe at San Antonio, hearing our glorious shout. 

Caught the wild panic as it passed, and general was the route. 

"The war horse Worth pursued them hard and filled the way with 

slain , 
Who wouldn't fight, but ran away, that they might fight again.- 



24 

XVI. 

At Churubusco's dark convent our foe next made a stand ; 
And at the bridge and batteries the country's chosen band, 
T'ull thirty thousand men of war, their Joab at their head, 
To pour on us the dreadful storm of iron and of lead. 

XVII. 

"We were but few — six thousand men — to face that iron sleet , 
Yet, each himself a " Spartan host," who feared it not to meet. 
We rushed upon their batteries, and silenced every gun, 
And there, again, upon the mule, made Santa Anna run. 

XVIII. 
We slew a field full of their men, took thousands more alive,. 
And thought full sure that now with fate he would no longer strive-. 
An armistice they made with us to break again at will ; 
To give them time to fortify, and their poor army fill. 

XIX. 

On the eighth day of September, 1847, at the early dawn of day, 
We met the enemy again, near by " Molino Rey ; " 
Again we whipped a chosen band and drove them from the field, 
Although they seemed determined before us not to yield. 

XX. 

Next on Chapul tepee we went — it was early Monday morn. 
The thirteenth of September, 1847, we took that place by storm. 
The day we did that gallant deed is firmly impressed upon my mind. 
In the wide world's bright history the like you cannot find. 

XXI. 

The Mexicans in battle line, stood up in dark array 
Behind their guns, determined that time to win the day. 
The mighty castle on the rocky hill reared up itself in pride, 
For there in native majesty a prince once did reside. 

XXII. 

Its frowning battlements were dark with thousands of our foe, 
Who swore by Santa Anna's life up there we should not go ! 
Its scores of forts were manned with guns, the largest and the best, 
Which hurled upon us the iron storm without a moment's rest. 

XXIII. 
But we had all decided, then, Chapultepec must fall ! 
That we would sxorm her batteries, and leap her rugged wall. 
We planted our artillery, which soon began to play 
With thundering noise and clouds of smoke which darkened thait 
bright day. 



25 

XXIV. 
Our thirty-sixes and twenty-fours and siege-guns all did roar, 
And into old Chapultepec their maddened fury poured ! 
The enemies were sore dismayed and troubled on that day, 
For Santa Anna on that mule again did run away. 

XXV. 

Each shot we fired went to the spot and bored her massive walls, 
And seemed to say^ at each stern stroke, I will revel in these halls. 
The cannonade was terrible, the castle shook each stroke. 
The iron pride of Mexico was in that battle broke ! 

XXVI. 

"Now charge, my lads," brave Pillow cried, "the time at length has 

come ! " 
So sound the bugle, play the fife, and beat the martial drum ; 
Push up the heights, gallant fifteenth and ninth on to the fight — 
In Montezuma's citadel we all shall sheep to-night! 

XXVII. 

He raised his sword above his head, the sunbeams kissed its blade. 
And to that memorial charge his brave division led ; 
He waded with us through the swamp, which history will tell. 
Till close against the batteries pierced by a ball he fell. 

XXVIII. 

He fell, but still his gallant men charged boldly up the hill. 
Determined to avenge his blood, or soldier's graves to fill ! 
They shouted victory as they went, and leaped the castle's walls^ 
And drove the pride of Mexico from Montezuma's halls ! 

XXIX. 

Cadwallader, that mountain storm of the great iron State, 

In gallantry and kindness, too, but few with him can mate ; 

When Pillow fell he led us on bravely against the foe. 

And stopped not till his State's bright flag over the works did flow ! 

XXX. 

We stopped not till the hateful flag of Mexico was low, 
And on the treacherous enemy dealt many a heavy blow ; 
Then up instead we run with joy that of the Buckeye State, 
Next joined by the colors of the Empire (N. Y.) and Keystone (Pa.) 
States. 

XXXI. 

Then waved in glorious majesty that noble trio there ! 
A sight to every freeman, the fairest of the fair. 



•26 

^ine cheers for Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York — 

The States that furnished soldiers and raise the wheat and pork ! 

XXXII. 

We tossed the Guard of Mexico, who were the last in fight, 
Headlong from old Lhapultepec and down its dizzy height, 
And followed shouting at their heels, each heart with joy elate, 
Till we had drove their legions quite through the city gate. 

XXXIII. 
Brave Scott rode up and thanked us all, whilst tears stood in his 

eyes, 
Saying brave men, I am proud of you, great glory near you lies ; 
You have done nobly, my brave men, and now have won the day, 
But Santa Anna on that mule again has got away. 

XXXIV. 

Your sweethearts will be proud of you, and so each anxious wife, 
That you have done this gallant deed with such small loss of life ; 
Your patriotic countrymen will shout your glorious fame. 
And you will all be proud, my lads, to bear the soldier's name! 

XXXY. 

At Belen and at Cosmos gates our troops lay all the night, 
While Santa Anna and his host entrenched lay full in sight ; 
We all expected a hard fight by the return of day, 
But Santa Anna's wooden leg again had run away. 

XXX VI. 

We then advanced, as conquerors, with merry five and drum. 
Playing " Hail Columbia ! Happy land," we come, make way, we 

come ! 
The yellow greasers left the town, afraid our boys to face ; 
And gallant Scott rode forward and took that shining place. 

XXXVII. 

Our flag now floats in victory over all this fated land, 
And the perfidious enemy dare not before us stand I 
Old Anahuez sunny vales, the Aztecs golden town. 
Have thrown the fettered banner of Santa Anna down. 

XXXVIII. 

So here is a health to every lass, and all our wives and friends ; 
A greeting to his native land each gallant soldier sends 
His prayers for every widow lone, and orphan made by war, 
For Colonel Morgan and his boys, who bear the iron scar. 



27 

XXXIX. 

Peace to the ashes of a Drum, a gallant Rausom too ! 

Brave Twiggs and Scott, and all who died, with victory in view ; 

Peace to the ashes of the dead, the fighting rank and tile ! 

The strong-armed American soldiers, whose hearts are free from guile^ 

XL. 

Fill up your glasses to the brim ; shout for your native land, 
And all the gallant soldiers who here fought hand in hand ! 
And foco tiempo we will get home, when peace will bless the day 
Jf Santa Anna's wooden-leg keeps that old wretch away ! 

Appendix. 

Americans ! Oh, not in vain have our heroes died ! 
And not in vain have our martyrs sighed ! 
The soul of yore, the soul that gave 
The glory to America's soil and wave. 
From Vernon's Mount to Ashland's grave, 
Still lightens through the sky. — Finis. 

EvERHARD Welter, Mexican War Veteran. 

Rebecca, the American noble woman of old Virginia, of that sweet 
Southern flower, a violet which the author found in June, 1850, upon 
the lone prairie of southern Wisconsin, and plucked in September, 
and has ever since loved and cherised, A full portrait will be drawn 
when he re-enters his father's house. 

There still hangs the portrait of Josephine, the American woman 
of French origin and type, and beside her shall be seen the portrait 
of the woman of southern Anglo-Saxon type, the American mother 
of his American born children, descended from old American-Vir- 
ginia ancestry ; she patriotically loved her native land, its sons and 
daughters of name and fame — the Washingtons and JefFersons — 
its "Star Spangled Banner," the American flag. She delighted to 
wander over its history in Colonial, 1776 and 1812 struggles, feel- 
ing proud of the achievements of her countrymen, as soldiers and as 
statesmen. Indeed, she was an American woman in every pulsation 
of her heart, Christian, religious as her father — a'minister of the Gos- 
pel — and her good mother. In form, in body, she was tall, stately ,^ 
as many of the women in Virginia are ; possessed of more than ordi- 
nary nerve and endurance ; a fearless equestrienne ; in mind, as 
bright as her dark eyes and regular features indicated her to be ; yet, 
withal, kind-hearted, especially to the poor and the sick, who, at 
her home found in her always a good Samaritan ; an excellent house- 
wife, a devoted mother, she lived and died ; beloved by her brothers 
and sisters, husband and children, neighbors, friends, and towns- 
people, indeed, by all, all who had seen and heard of her. — Finis. 



28 

(Copy. — Original in my possession.) 
To James Buchanan, President of the United States. 

Sir : The undersigned, survivors of Col. Burnett's First Regiment 
New York Volunteers in Mexico, would respectfully recommend to 
your favorable notice Everhard Welter, of Monroe, Wisconsin, as a 
proper person for the American consulate at Aix-la-Chapelle. Mr. 
Welter, although of foreign birth, has familiarized himself thor- 
oughly with the institutions, laws, and policy of his adopted coun- 
try. He served with us in the Army of the Republic during the 
Mexican war as a volunteer, and during the time of peace has been 
known to us as a gentleman of probity and honor, eminently quali- 
fied for the position to which he aspires. His knowledge of modern 
languages, added to his business capacities and integrity of principle 
and character, lead us to request you to confer this or some similar 
appointment upon him. 

Very respectfully, sir, your obdt. servants. 

(Sig.) Ward B, Burnett, Col. ; J. C. Burnham, Lieut. -Col.; 
Garnet Dykman, Brev. Col. and Major ; Addison Farnsworth, Brev. 
Major N. Y. Vols.; Morton Fairchild, Capt. Co. I, N. Y. Regt.; 
Henry Gaines, late Lieut. N. Y. Regt.; Wm. H. Brown, late Lieut. 
N. Y. Regt.; H. Dardonville, late Lieut. N. Y. Regt.; Chas. H. 
Innis, Brev't Major N. Y. Vol.; Alfred AVm, Tayloe, Brev't Major 
N. Y. Vol. 

Dated New York city, April 19th, 1858. 

Mr. Welter : You know it will give me pleasure to serve you. 

(Sig.) JAMES SHIELDS. 

Washington, D. C, May 3, 18'58. 

Mr. Welter served in New York Volunteers under my command 
in Mexico, and I remember him as an active, good soldier. I believe 
lie possesses qualities suitable to the performance of the duties of the 
place he seeks, and recommend him to the President. 

(Sig.) J. A. QUITMAN. 

Have a distinct recollection of Mr. Welter in Mexico ; have per- 
fect confidence in the testimonials he exhibits, and, on a personal 
-acquaintance, think highly of him. 

(Sig.) WINFIELD SCOTT. 

Washington, D. C, June 12, 1858. 

I hope Mr. Welter may live long and prosper. 

(Sig.) WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 
W^ashington, D. C, March 24, 1885. 

I heartily concur in the above. Mr. Welter deserves it. 
Washington, March 29, 1885. W. S. ROSECRANS. 



29 

I heartily concur in the good wishes above expressed. 

(Sig.) J. W. DENVER. 

Washington, March 31, 1885. 

I concur in the foregoing recommendations. 

(Sig.) S. D. STURGIS, 

Brevt. Maj. -General, Governor Soldiers' Home. 
(Sig.) P. H. SHERIDAN, 

April 24, 1885. Lieut. -General. 

(Copy. — Original in my possession.) 

To his Excellency James Buchanan, 

President of the United States. 

Sir : We, the undersigned. Democratic citizens of Wisconsin, 
would respectfully recommend to your favorable notice Mr. Everhard 
Welter as a fit person for the American consulate at Aix-la-Chapelle. 
Mr, Welter, although of foreign birth, has familiarized himself 
thoroughly with the institutions, laws_, and policy of his adopted 
country. He served in the Army of the Republic during the Mexi- 
•can war, and during the time of peace has ever been a zealous co- 
worker in the Democratic party. His knowledge of foreign 
languages, added to his business qualifications, integrity of principle 
and character, lead us to request your Excellency to confer this or 
some similar appointment upon him. 

Very respectfully, sir, your obedient servants. 

(Sig.) Wm. Rittenhouse, Monroe, Wis., late clerk U. S. district 
-court, G-reen County, Territory of Wisconsin ; Alfred Goddard, P. 
M., Monroe, Wis.; Simon Condee, Monroe, Wis., Dem. S. C. Com- 
mittee ; Noah Phelps, Monroe, Wis.; Wm. C. Barstow, Janesville, 
Wis.; D. C. Brown, P. M., Janesville, Wis.; Edward Hunter, 
Janesville, Wis.; C. E. Wright, editor Dem. Standard, Janesville, 
Wis.; C. H. Winott, Janesville, Wis.; Charles Stewart Jordan, 
Janesville, Wis.; Godfrey H. Bishop, Janesville, Wis.; Peter Baash, 
Janesville, Wis.; W. H. Gunnison, U. S. agent, Milwaukee, Wis.; 
Moritz Schoefter, collector of port, Milwaukee, Wis.; J. A. Eastman, 
Milwaukee, Wis.; C. H. Larkin, agent for paying pensions, Mil- 
waukee, Wis.; J. R. Sharpstein, P. M., Milwaukee, Wis.; D. A. J. 
Upham, U. S. Dist. Att'y, Milwaukee, Wis.; F. M. Miller, clerk 
U. S. dist. court., Milwaukee, Wis.; F. B. Dunlap, ass't P. M., 
Milwaukee, Wis.; J. B. Cross, mayor of Milwaukee, Wis.; Geo. B. 
8mith, chairman Dem. State Committee, Madison, Wis.; E. A. 
•Calkins, QdAiox Argus and Democrat, M.B.d^.80Ti, Wis.; J. C.Fairchild, 
3ate Dem. State Treasurer and member Dem, S. Com., Madison, 
Wis.; H. Slaughter, member of Dem. Nat, Com, for Wisconsin, 
Madison, Wis,; E. B, Dean, jr,, Rec'r at Superior, Wisconsin ; E. 
Miller, P. M,, Janesville, Wis. 



30 

(Copy. — Original in my possession.) 

To General Ward Burnett, commanding First Regiment New 
York Volunteers in Mexico, 1 846-' 48 ; to the fellow-soldiers and 
comrades-in-arms, as well as all other friends of the 1st Reg't N. 
Y. Vols, in Mexico, residing in the State of New York, and all 
other States and Territories of the United States of America, 
Greeting. 

We, the undersigned, old settlers' of the State of Wisconsin, 
especially the counties of Rock and Green, do herewith favorably 
recommend to you the bearer, Everhard Welter, of Monroe, Green 
County, Wisconsin. Mr. Welter came direct from New York city 
in the month of May, 1850 (almost a quarter of a century ago), to 
live among us and build up a family altar and a home for himself 
and wife and children, as he has done. During all this long time 
we have known him as uniformly straightforward, true to his word, 
faithful to his family, his friends, and fellow-citizens, adhering with 
more than common firmness to the principles of truth, honor, and 
integrity. Politically, he always has been and still is, like many 
of us, an adamant Democrat, clinging with all the tenacity of a 
true soldier to the Constitution of Washington, Jefferson, and Jack- 
son. Wishing our old friend, Mr. Weller, success in the effort to 
accomplish the objects he has at heart, we subscribe ourselves. 
Respectfully your friends. 
(Sig.) B. Dunwiddie, county judge, Monroe, Green County^ 
Wisconsin ; A. Rogers, John Winans, George Helmbold, George 
Bloom, T. K. Bloom, Samuel Vance, M. C. Smith, J. J. R. Pease, 
E. C. Smith, Moses R. Prichard, Amos P. Prichard, county judge 
of Rock County, Wisconsin : Ira Miltimore, Henry Search, T. W. 
Lynch, A. W. Potter, Geo. B. Smith, Wm. F. Vilas, S. W. Abbott, 
W. H. Sinclair, Peter McVean, A. Stull, Orrin Bacon, Hiram Brown, 
Edward Einbeck, Edward Ruegger, Geo. H. King, J. C. Hall, 
James Sutherland, J. W. Sale, A. Palmer, N. S. Shelton, J. B. 
Doe, A. C. Bates, J. H. Warren, C T. Thompson, Ed. E. Bryant,, 
H. T. Moore, J. E. Bowen, W. E. Westcott. 

Dated Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin, January 8, 1874. 

The undersigned (late brig.-gen'l, and a lieutenant in (Jol. Bur- 
nett's regiment in Mexico), heartily indorses the foregoing in behalf 
of Mr. Welter. 

With great respect, (Sig.) HENRY BROWN. 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 22, 1887. 

I am also glad to indorse the within. 

(Sig.) Mrs. THOS. A. HENDRICKS. 

I respectfully recommend this veteran to the Presidential consid- 
eration. (^igO J- C. BLACK, Com. Pensions. 
(Sig.) THOS. R. HUDD, Wisconsin.' 



31 

Soldiers' Home, Washington, D. C, Decemher^, 1886. 

We, the undersigned, veterans of the Mexican war, 1846-'48, and 
war of the rebellion, 1861 -'65, cheerfully testify that we have known 
Comrade Everhard Welter for three years, and have found him, at 
all times, an intelligent, liberal, accommodating gentleman, in good 
standing with the officers and men at the Home, and a consistent 
advocate of Democratic principles. 
Resp't y'r obd't serv'ts. 

(Sig.) Thos. Evans, serg't-major ; Chas. F. Gellus, 1st serg't ; 
Hamilton Hunter, private ; Francis Lowerhuz, Mex. private ; Will- 
iam W. Smith, Mex. private ; John Scott, Mex. private ; William 
Schauer. private ; Patrick Davin, serg't ; Michael Hoffman, Mex. 
private; Daniel McClain, Mex. private; William G. O'Donnel ; 
William Kernahan, serg't ; Jas. O'Brien, 1st serg't ; Geo. H. 
Stagg, private ; Adolph Welge, private ; Henry Ellerhurst, corporal 
Mex.; A. Shra3der, private Mex.; William Slade, private Mex.; 
John H. Roblin, Louis Graverman, Mex.; Thos. CuUom, Mex.; 
Daniel Banks, Mex.; Robert Savage. 

(Copy. — Original in my possession.) 

Washington, D. C, References. 
Law Office, Madison, Wis., January 8, 1885. 
*0ol. Everhard Welter, c, o. General Jas. W. Denver, 

1115 Pa. Ave.., Washington, D. G. 
My Dear Sir : Your long letter, advising me so fully of the interest- 
ingand important events of your summer campaign, has been received. 
I am very much gratified to think you have been of so much service 
to the country and the party, etc. I hope you will have a great 
many years of continued happiness and satisfaction for the enjoy- 
inent of your friends and the blessings of life. 

Yours, truly, (Sig.) WM. F. VILAS. 

Headquarters Democratic Congressional 
Campaign Committee, 1408 H Street Northwest, 

Washington, D. C, Aug. 12, 1886. 

Hon. John E. Kenna {Chairman Dem. Gong. Gommittee), 
1408 H Street, Washington, D. G. 
Dear Sir : At the request of the bearer. Col. Everhard Welter, 
of Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin, but who has been residing at 
the Soldiers' Home since' 1883, I cheerfully state that he has been a 
zealous and faithful worker for the Democratic faith, and wishes to 
see you on matters he will explain personally. 
Very respectfully, 

(Sig.) ARTHUR ST. CLAIR DENVER, 

1*^ Vice-President Golumbia Democratic Glub. 



I know Mr. Welter quite well, and think he is worthy of your 
confidence. Verv respectfully, 

(Sig.) S. M. STOCKSLAGER, 
1st Asst. Commissioner, General Land Offlce. 

I concur. . (Sig.) J. W. DENVER. 

Washington, D. C, Aug. 16, 1886. 
I have known Col. Welter for three years, and have always found 
him thoroughly posted about matters generally. He is a consistent 
Democrat, and should be encouraged. 

Respt. (Sig.) SAM'L H. WALKER, 

Chief of Police. 

Washington, D. C, Sept. 4, 1886. 
I fully concur in the above indorsement of Col. Welter's unswerv- 
ing Democracy and exalted jjatriotism. 

Respectfully, (Sig.) ZACH. MONTGOMERY. 

I concur. (Sig.) WM. S. ROSECRANS. 

I concur. (Sig.) A. E. STEVENSON.. 

So do I, most cheerfully. (Sig.) WM. E. McLEAN. 

The following is a true copy of indorsements added to Mr. Welter's 
letter to Mrs. Thos. A. Hendricks, of Indiana, dated Washington, 
D. C, Nov. 16, 1887 : " The writer of the above has had the mis- 
fortune to lose the sight of one eye recently, and it would be a 
gracious act if something could be done for him." 

(Sig.)" S. M. STOCKSLAGER. 

I cordially indorse the within statement of Mr. S. M. Stockslager, 
and trust that the wishes of Mr. Welter will be gratefully consid- 
ered. (Sig.) WM. E. McLEAN, 

Acting Commissioner of Pensions. 
A Correct Copy of Col. Welter's Petition to the President. 
To his Excellency Grover Cleveland, 

President of the United States, Washington D. C., 

Sir: The undersigned, citizens of Wisconsin, members of the- 
Green and Rock County bar, some of us old settlers of the State since 
Territorial times, herewith recommend to your favorable notice our 
fellow-citizen, Everhard Welter, from Monroe, Green County, Wis- 
consin. 

In 1850, shortly after the Mexican war, in which he won marked 
distinction, as the testimonials of General Winfield Scott and other 
commanding officers will show, Mr. Welter came to live among us, 
a zealous co-worker in the Democratic party. In the same year he 
chose an American daughter for his wife, and after holding official 
positions oftrust and honor, in the Wisconsin State Treasury Depart- 



ment, under the administration of Governor Dewe)^ and in the lavr 
office of our venerable county judge, Hon. Brooks Dunwiddie, where 
he acquired a knowledge of American laws, institutions^ and policy, he 
became enabled, whilst living in Washington, D. C, in 1858, to gain 
the personal friendship of General Scott, President Buchanan, Vice- 
President Breckinridge, and your late associate in office, Vice-Presi- 
dent Hendricks and Mrs. Hendricks, his wife. As the latter's private 
messenger and assistant to his private secretary — Col. East — he 
would have continued to act, had not sudden death caused a sorrow- 
ful separation. . 

By conferring a similar appointment on your old Democratic friend^ 
Col. Everhard Welter, the undersigned would feel honored by your 
excellency. 

We have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servants. 

(Signed) John Winans, John R. Bennett, Colin W. Wright,, 
district attorney ; Joseph Kleckner, W. T. Giles, editor Dem. Mon- 
roe Gazette; J. B. Treat, B. Dunwiddie, county judge ; S. W. Ab- 
bott, justice of the peace ; Edward Ruegger, late Capt. Co. E, 9th 
Regt. Wis. Vols.; A. Armstrong, Franklin Mitchell, Thos. A. 
Jackson, late Co. B, 18th Regt. Wis. Vols.; John Luchsinger, justice 
of the peace ; Jas. H. Chapel, an old soldier ; Dr. Alexander Dun- 
can, E. Ace, an old soldier ; John Dalrymple, J. K. Eilert, Nath'l 
Treat, Chas. Booth, editor Monroe Sentinel ; N. B. Treat, late Capt. 
Co. B, 31st Regt. Wis. Vols.; B. Chenoweth, A. S. Douglas, attor- 
ney ; H. W. Friek, editor Green County Herald (German) ; Dr. J. 
C. Hall, John Lemmel, county clerk, late Co., 15th Regt. Wis. Vols.;. 
A. M. Troy, J. W. Blackford, Christ Miner, W. H. Welshhorn, an 
old soldier ; L. Dalton, P. M., House of Representatives, Washing- 
ton, D. C; C. E. Silcott, Dep. Serg't. at Arms, House of Represent- 
atives, Washington, D. C; Nelson Dewey, ex-Governor of Wiscon- 
sin, P. 0. address, Cassville, Wis. 

Dated Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin, October 18, 1887. 



V92 



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